The Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra will travel to the Royal Albert Hall in London next month to perform the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Iranian-American Behzad Ranjbaran in a sold-out appearance at the BBC Proms. The Philharmonic will also be joined by its Music Director Han-Na Chang and pianist Denis Matsuev. The concert, to be held on Sunday September 7, will be the first by a Gulf-based ensemble in the 120-year history of The BBC Proms, the world’s largest classical music festival.
In September 2013, Korean Han-Na Chang became the Music Director of the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra as well as Principal Guest Conductor of the Trondheim Symfoniorkester, both appointments immediately following her debut appearances with the orchestras.
Guest engagements in coming seasons include debuts with the Gothenburg, Cincinnati and Indianapolis symphony orchestras, while recent engagements include appearances with the Staatskapelle Dresden, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Seattle Symphony, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra del Teatro di San Carlo di Napoli Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Bamberger Symphoniker, the Grosses Orchester Graz and the Singapore, Tokyo, and Tivoli symphony orchestras. Han-Na Chang first gained international recognition for her precocious musical talents at the age of 11, when she won both the First Prize and the Contemporary Music Prize at the Fifth Rostropovich International Cello Competition in Paris in 1994.
At the BBC Proms Qatar Philharmonic will perform Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto. ‘The Sunrise‘ from ’Seemorgh‘, part of ’The Persian Trilogy‘, which opens the performance, will receive its Proms premiere. Born in 1955 in Tehran, Iran, composer Behzad Ranjbaran‘s musical education started early when he entered the Tehran Music Conservatory at the age of nine. He came to the United States in 1974 to attend Indiana University, and received his doctorate in composition from the Juilliard School, where he currently serves on the faculty.
Following the Proms, the Qatar Philharmonic will travel to Rome, Italy, alongside pianist Boris Berezovsky to perform in Santa Cecilia Hall on Tuesday September 9.
The Peninsula
